Junior Summer Reading: How do peoples' experiences and perceptions shape your understanding of justice and mercy?

All students are encouraged to read the book Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson as a central part of our learning experience.  The book is available for checkout for all incoming juniors in the Samohi textbook office.  In the fall, all Junior English classes will spend the beginning of the year focused on a single, essential question: How do peoples' experiences and perceptions shape our understanding of justice and mercy?  Reading Just Mercy as well as exploring the resources on this site will help you begin to answer this question. 

Our English Department has worked to create a curated list of supplemental resources related to this essential question.  These resources are presented here in a variety of modes: narratives, poems, articles, videos, and podcasts.  Each of these resources is accessible to all students through the links on these pages.  We encourage each student to explore at least FIVE of these resources, one from each category (short stories, poems, articles, videos, and podcasts) to help supplement their understanding of the book. Of course, students are encouraged to work with more.  Along with each category, there is a supplemental activity that students can use if they choose.  We have found these activities helpful for students to take notes and engage more closely with the sources.  These are similar to activities that many teachers will use in class. 

At the beginning of the Fall semester, all Junior English classes at all grade levels will spend the first couple of weeks working with this essential question "How do peoples' experiences and perceptions shape our understanding of justice and mercy?"  Teachers will use some of the resources included here along with other supplemental activities and resources.  The daily assignments and early assessments during the first few weeks of school will focus on the essential question. 

Along with these resources, Samohi students are encouraged to continue reading on their own over the summer.  Parents, please help your student make time to read -- a half-hour a day is perfect -- and ask your child regularly about what they've read or encourage them to write about it.